Let’s Be Good Neighbors

Putting out your rubbish on time is not rocket science. The trucks collect the rubbish three times a week and are usually finished by about 8:30 a.m.

So if you look out your front door and see that there are no trash bags left on your street on the appointed day, then you probably missed the pickup.

To the person that just plunked their three white garbage bags in front of someone’s single family home on Chestnut Street last Monday morning – this is not acceptable.

The owner said that he originally had a senior moment when he saw the bags that were filled with pizza boxes as well as Chinese food wrappers. He wondered whether someone else in his family had done it, but then he remembered that he is the only one ever to put out the rubbish. He proceeded to call the Mayor’s Hotline to report this infraction on Monday afternoon. Well, nothing happened on Monday, so another call was placed to City Hall on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, the bags were still there and on Tuesday afternoon, he came home to find out that he was fined for putting out the trash early even though he was the one calling to report the infraction. Another call was placed and the ticket was reversed, but the trash bags remained in front of his home until the Wednesday morning regular pick up.

Given the cold weather, bugs are not a problem and maybe the rats found it also too cold to forage about the neighborhood.

Listening to the birds this morning on Chestnut Street, in less than 30 days, spring will be here and so this could become a very serious problem.

We live right on top of one another and to carelessly dispose of rubbish with a “so what attitude” does not make for either a good neighbor or a good neighborhood.

To fight the problems of rodents, we need to all work together and this means cutting off their easy food source like rubbish left out for two days.